


If You Ever Tell

by verity_willows



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Mystery, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 06:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14350074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verity_willows/pseuds/verity_willows
Summary: A few years ago, Emilia Gray helped the local police solve high-profile cases with her clairvoyant powers. Then came the shocking kidnapping in her beloved hometown; the first crime she couldn't solve.





	1. Taken

**FRIDAY, 8:20 P.M.**

_The bright red cape billowed dramatically. A pair of cold piercing eyes looked from the darkness casted around him. "You have become one of them, the evil has consumed you," he intoned. He whipped out his spear and grandly swept it through the air, the glint of its blade made a scary-thrilling shine of power. "I am Justice. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power — I'll purge your blight!"_

__

__

_His nemesis winced in front of the awesome power of the fearsome warrior..._

Suddenly she couldn't breathe. The spear dropped from her hand and the face of her frightening adversary crumbled as she struggled out of the mystical dream of _Fight for Justice!_ She tried to open her eyes, but they were covered. She opened her mouth to scream and a sickeningly sweet-smelling cloth filled it. Her breath rasped in her throat. Her legs thrashed. Her arms waved, her hand connecting with something solid. She clutched material, wondering if this was a part of the dream that was going so wrong. Aunt Marnie had told her there was a secret rhyme to make a bad dream go away. She hadn't had a bad dream for a long time and she tried to remember: _One, two, three, four; Bad dream out the door!_

Dizzy with fear and nausea, she didn't wake up. She couldn't see the comforting familiarity of her room with its superhero poster and the cage with her pet hamster and the star-shaped nightlight Aunt Marnie always left on until she went to sleep. She must still be asleep! She needed to try again. _One, two, three, four; Bad dream out the door!_

Nothing. Horror flamed through her slight 10-year-old body as she realized something awful, something real, was happening outside her dream world. She writhed wildly, although her energy was slipping away. The cloth pressed over her face, making her eyes burn, turning the inside of her nose raw. Her tongue felt huge. Where was Aunt Marnie? Aunt Marnie, please _help!_ She struck out with a hand and heard someone mutter "Damn you!" when she connected with a nose. What kind of nose? Big? Little? A man's nose? A girl's?

Fiery panic surged through her. She knew she was going to throw up. She was scared like a baby because her legs would barely move now. She shivered and she thought she might wet her pants. Something was pushed over her head, something like a hood, but not a good kind of hood like superheroes wear. Something rough and itchy and smothering and moldy that sucked into her mouth when she tried to breathe. And now she was having trouble thinking. Blinding spots of light flashed in front of her eyes.

With the little strength she had left, she closed her fingers around the leg of the stuffed lion she'd loved in pieces. Good, strong, fearless Léon — forever her protector. Faithful Léon who performed with Star Gazer on her amazing acts in the _Big Top Circus_. Léon could help.

And Léon tried. Someone forced loose her fingers but the lion clung, a hook on its collar caught on her pajamas. Don't let me go, she begged Léon mentally. Don't let _go!_

"Time to leave," someone whispered harshly in her ear, into her fuzzy mind. "Say good-bye to all you know. This is the beginning of the end, little girl."

With a horror she'd never known in her life, she felt her body being roughly lifted from the bed, the stuffed animal a dangling weight. In a minute the night air washed over her, seeping through her sweat-drenched pajamas, chilling her damp feet, touching her limp fingers.

She heard the distant bark of a dog and the high whine of a mosquito near her ear before she went still, sinking into a dreamless, unnatural sleep.


	2. Tunnel Vision

**FRIDAY, 8:25 P.M.**

_"This is SDV Radio Station in Zuzu City, bringing you one of our favorite oldies, 'Raven's Descent' by the Fall."_

String music soared throughout the car and Emilia Gray rolled her eyes. "Since when does a song from 1998 count as a golden oldie?" Her British Shorthair, Silver, sitting on the seat across from her, looked back lazily. "I wonder what they call songs from the seventies? Prehistoric?"

Emilia drained the last bit of strong, lukewarm coffee from her styrofoam cup and stuck it in the plastic trash bag along with two other used cup. Her stomach churned, her eyes burned, and her hands trembled. Too much caffeine and too little sleep. And fear. It had coursed through her since last night, when her mother's bestfriend Robin had called her in Pelican Town and said, "Your grandpa has cancer."

"Well, that's not possible," Emilia had said inanely, thinking of the man who'd radiated health and energy since Emilia was a little girl. According to Robin, seventy-five-year-old Grandpa Allan had just told her he would have surgery and begin chemotherapy in less than two weeks. Allan wanted no sympathy and he wanted no one else to know of his condition. "He also told me not to tell you in particular," Robin had said late last night on the phone after waiting until everyone in the house had gone to sleep because she didn't want the others to be upset. "Allan doesn't want you coming all the way from Zuzu City, especially because Pelican Town has such bad memories for you. So you have to think up an excuse for this trip."

An excuse? Emilia was still working on that one, her mind having been occupied with the flurry of the hurried trip. She had to make arrangements in renting a car for the 50-mile drive to Pelican Town. Through it all Emilia had been unable to catch up on the sleep she'd lost last night and she was now tired and feeling slow-witted.

Emilia flipped off the radio. Music that had helped to keep her awake now blurred into irritating noise. She glanced at Silver. "You look as tired as a dog." The cat gazed at her with disdain. "I know you're not crazy about people in general, but I hope you like my grandpa. He'll be crazy about you." Silver turned his head towards the window. "My mother would have liked you too."

All of a sudden, she remembered her mom who loved cats so much. When she was a child, Emilia adored her lovely mother Mia's thick, wheat-colored hair, azure eyes, and slender-boned body. She had quick, tinkling laughter and a personality that alternated easily between adult and child-like. One evening she could be the gracious, polished hostess at a dinner party. The next morning she could wholeheartedly throw herself into one of Emilia's tea parties or a game of hide-and-seek with her and her brother Sam. She remembered how her mother changed completely one day. It was unexpected just like what happened to Sam.

A sudden pain reamed like a knife in Emilia's stomach at the thought of Sam. Five years older than her, Samuel Gray had been a beautiful, happy brother who'd grown into an agile, high-spirited boy with a cap of blond curls and a devilish glint in his bright blue eyes. When he was feeling very generous, he had allowed Emilia to dress him up and treat him like her own beloved doll. When he got older, he'd shrugged off her requests for dress up and insisted on being treated as a superior. Regardless, they'd played together, shared secrets, squabbled, tattled on each other, and managed to always remain bestfriends. She hadn't been able to imagine life without him. She hadn't thought she would ever _be_ without him.

She had been wrong.

Silver pawed at her arm, sensing her tension. "We're almost... there." She had nearly said _home_ , but Pelican Town wasn't home and hadn't been for eight years since her mother left them behind and Sam had been murdered. She hadn't visited since she'd studied at Stardew Valley University in Zuzu City when she was eighteen. She'd intended never to return.

Her stomach tigtened as she drove into the Pelican Town limits. Up ahead, she saw storm clouds billowing against the slate gray sky just turning black. Outside, the wind had picked up sharply. Tree limbs bent backward and in the distance, Emilia saw a streak of lightning cast a blue glow against the dark sky. She heard the thunder rumbled, loud and ominous. If she believed in signs, she would have considered a storm her first night back in town a bad omen.

She turned up the speed of the windshield wipers. Lightning viciously sliced the sky again and a wave of rain slapped the car hard enough to make her swerve.

Less than a quarter of a mile ahead, Emilia saw the tunnel entrance of the actual town. As she entered the dark structure, she heard the explosion of thunder followed by a glittering spear of lightning which casted a light inside the tunnel. Emilia cringed and Silver curled himself against the car seat out of fear. The lightning had been too close for comfort, although she knew that the tunnel protected them from electric shock.

A dull throbbing had started at her right temple. It was a familiar pain, although she hadn't felt it for quite a while. She would think of something else, forget it, take some aspirin when she got home. Thank goodness it wasn't too much farther to the bus stop, she thought, watching the wipers swipe across the windshield. Back and forth. Back and forth...

The rain-smeared windshield slowly blurred, then began to disappear. Emilia tried to focus, to shut out all that was not tangible, but with dream-like inevitability, she felt herself drift from her own consciousness into someone else's...

 

* * *

Rough cloth was tied around her face and around her mouth. Blindfolded and gagged, that's what she was. Beneath her was something hard — wood, probably — and her right hip and arm were numb. Something was tied around her ankles and her hands were pulled behind her and trapped by rope, the skin beneath it raw from fruitless rubbing. She felt sick, like she wanted to throw up, and her head hurt real bad. She thought she might cry, which would be awful because none of her movie heroes would cry and she'd feel like a complete baby.

She tried inhaling deeply in an effort to stop the crying, but the air was hot and smelled awful. Rotten. And she could hear thunder outside and rain beating against the windows. Bright pinpoints of light sparkled in front of her burning eyes. She was afraid. Deathly afraid. Thunder boomed and she shuddered, pulling herself up into a ball. Uttering gutteral sobs, she inched across the floor until her face touched something soft. Léon, her stuffed lion. Léon who performed with Star Gazer on her amazing acts in the _Big Top Circus_. Maybe Léon could save her, too...

 

* * *

Slowly Emilia's vision faded. The thoughts of the little girl were drowned out by the sound of the rain pounding on her windshield, she didn't notice that she was out of the tunnel. The hood of the car pointed toward something large and looming. Emilia blinked, aware that she'd returned to her own reality but unfortunately too late. She jerked the steering wheel to the right, but the car plunged at a giant tree trunk. The noise of screeching metal seemed far away as the hood of her car crumpled. Emilia had worn her seatbelt, holding her body in place, but her head snapped violently forward. Her last sensations were of blood running down her face and her vision dimming into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an au so I'm taking the liberties of changing some things according to my story. I just hope I don't deviate too much and ruin the whole game.

**Author's Note:**

> A new story for the stardew valley universe. (/^▽^)/
> 
> I hope that you'll enjoy reading the story just as much as I enjoy writing this. So this is clearly a work in progress and please bear with me through my journey in writing out the story.
> 
> Also, reviews are very much appreciated. I would like to know what you think so don't be shy to tell me in the comments. （＾ω＾）


End file.
